Tofu Veggie Rice Bowl

This plant based recipe was inspired by an episode on the TV show Good Food America.  One of the restaurants featured was a Rice Bowl food truck in New Orleans which feature vegan offerings in what else, bowls, and yes you guess it, with rice.  One of the dishes served that caught my fancy was the Couch Rice Ball.  (They name their dishes after streets in their area).  I particularly wanted to try the simple way they flavored the tofu using only garlic powder, white and black pepper and tamari.  I have been looking for a recipe to flavor the very neutral tofu that uses five or less ingredients and entail minimum time and effort.  This definitely is one of the simplest and yet tastiest way that I really love and will resort to from now on. The tofu can be stored and used later on for another serving or servings of this rice bowl.

I tried imitating the sauce that they used which uses Korean chili bean paste and other ingredients but I did not like the result.  I decided to just use good old Hoisin sauce which is commercially available  Perfect result. You can also use the homemade Hoisin sauce in this blog.

To prepare each rice bowl, they use a layering approach in the following order: Jasmine rice, the sauce, tofu, spinach, sauce, shredded carrots, green onions and sesame seeds  I have almost all the ingredients or similar to them so I was dying to try the adaptation I had in mind right after the show.  I was not disappointed and neither would you.  Just awesome.  Perfect combination.  Here is the easy recipe.

Tofu Veggie Rice Bowl

4 rice bowls or servings

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 block firm tofu
• garlic powder
• soy sauce
• black pepper
• Hoisin sauce (for homemade Hoisin sauce here is the recipe from this blog)
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 4 carrots, shredded
• 4 stalks, green onions, sliced
• black sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

Cut the block of firm tofu into cube size.  Spray a griddle pan with non stick cooking spray.  Heat to medium heat.  Place the cubed tofu on the heated pan, sprinkle with garlic powder, pepper and dash of soy sauce. Allow the tofu to caramelize but not burnt. 

For each bowl, layer the following:  1/2 cup cooked brown rice, Hoisin sauce added circularly once, 1/4 the amount of tofu you prepared, 1/2 cup baby spinach, Hoisin sauce added circularly once, 1/4 the carrots, 1/4 the green onions and sprinkling of sesame seeds.  Enjoy!  So, so good.  No kidding.